ABSTRACT
There was a time when apologists for Milosevic's regime could point to Vreme, Nasa borba, and other independent periodicals, and to a string of independent radio and television stations as "proof" that there was a diversity of news sources in the country. In the West, the myth was long widespread that Milosevic enjoyed enormous popularity among Serbs. To understand the nature of the Milosevic regime and the roots of the Serbian crisis, one must return to the origins of the regime in 1987. In Kosovo, developments were taking an even more dangerous turn, as Serbian, Albanian, and US officials all warned that violence could escalate to the point of reigniting full-scale war in and around Kosovo. Belgrade was, in fact, waging a war of nerves, deploying its forces along the Montenegrin border and closing Montenegro's borders with Bosnia and Albania, while accusing Montenegro's political elites of "undermining" the Yugoslav army's defense capabilities.
